Online Backup Solutions

[tonylee5566]

Originally Posted by HyRax1

Need clarification - are you asking if you can backup a Linux filesystem on a RAID array? The answer would be yes, be it CrashPlan or any other backup solution.

yes, the RAID card Connect the two hard drives .

[Renza]

Originally Posted by tonylee5566

yes, the RAID card Connect the two hard drives .

RAID is not a backup. It merely protects you against drive failure, but doesnt provide any restoration for, say, a deleted file.

[HyRax1]

I think he was asking if any of the solutions posted in this thread can backup a RAID volume, which the answer is of course yes.

[The Mafia]

Its a properly built Server, Intel Mobo, Xeon, 16gig ECC Ram, Adaptec 6405 Raid card with Flash backed write cache, and a pair of Seagate ES server edition drives in a mirror.

We are looking at either a couple of Business entry level SSDs or SAS drives.

Crashplan seemed ok, but didn't give much flexibility. Only backup.

I decided to go with Spideroak, which was more feature rich, offered 100gig for $100, 200gig for $200 per year and so on.

The client had one huge feature that my brother liked quite a lot. Sync. Full bit level sync. He's got a 2TB mirror in his home workstation that has some free space, so once spideroak was installed, we simply set up a backup to the spideroak servers, and then a sync to his home machine.

Bam, Online backup, and offsite backup as easy as piss. He's thinking about backing that up to an external, place in the parents safe fortnightly, and then pissing off server backups all together once he moves to an on-line exchange server.

I have a HP microserver that I am thinking about installing somewhere that has a decent internet connection. It could be another backup location for his business, my data, and my parents data (photos, documents).

I've even considered opting for NBN early at my house ($5k apparently) and then backing up my family's data, and some extended family's business data to a pair of mirrored HP microservers. Charge them a yearly Fee ($500-$1000 or something) and I'm done.

Plus I have NBN at home then :P

[The Mafia]

Just an update - Spideroak is running really well. I don't seem to be having any issues at all. Data took a while to upload but once it was there, its there I guess.

I've also set up the sync and it works extremely well. I especially like the way it syncs .pst files. All bit level, only tiny bits go up. My brother is extremely happy with it, he has a full up to date sync on his home PC (Installed a 500gig mirror) and also has a full historical online version. I don't think that he would need much more.

Their zero knowledge policy is also a pretty cool thing. If anyone has any specific questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

[aza2001]

Originally Posted by BluBoy

LOVE crashplan with my own certificate!

I got the personal version (1 PC) which happens to be my file server at home.
I back up to it, it backs up to the cloud
Also, friends and family back up to my file server (thanks to the crashplan client!), which then also gets back up to the cloud... Works well for everybody!

Early on, I had slow uploads (~300Kbps) but I have been uploading at 800 - 1024Kbps for the last few days now... Not sure what happened!

Got a question for you on this as at the time of setting up crashplan myself crashplan never aloud me to backup itself to cloud. Is this still true?

[HyRax1]

Originally Posted by aza2001

Got a question for you on this as at the time of setting up crashplan myself crashplan never aloud me to backup itself to cloud. Is this still true?

You're already backing up to the cloud - are you talking about backing up a local CrashPlan backup to the cloud? Why would you want to do that?

[BluBoy]

Originally Posted by aza2001

Got a question for you on this as at the time of setting up crashplan myself crashplan never aloud me to backup itself to cloud. Is this still true?

I backup my computers locally to my filer server (rsync from win and linxu desktops to freebsd fileserver).
My file server has a directory setup something like:
/TANK/BACKUP/BLUBOY
/TANK/BACKUP/FRIENDS
/TANK/BACKUP/VIDEOS
/TANK/BACKUP/MUSIC

In Crashplan, I selected for the "BLUBOY" and "FRIENDS" folders to be backed up to the cloud.
Also in Crashplan, I also allow my friends to remotely backup to me... And their backups go into that folder, thus ending up in the cloud as well.

[cameronr]

Originally Posted by BluBoy

I backup my computers locally to my filer server (rsync from win and linxu desktops to freebsd fileserver).
My file server has a directory setup something like:
/TANK/BACKUP/BLUBOY
/TANK/BACKUP/FRIENDS
/TANK/BACKUP/VIDEOS
/TANK/BACKUP/MUSIC

In Crashplan, I selected for the "BLUBOY" and "FRIENDS" folders to be backed up to the cloud.
Also in Crashplan, I also allow my friends to remotely backup to me... And their backups go into that folder, thus ending up in the cloud as well.

I am just trying out Crashplan now. You say that your inbound folder is also set to backup to the cloud. Does this really work? The inbound folder seems to contain a few large files that seem to be the encrypted archives containing all the inbound files. They aren't stored on disk as the original files. If a friend does a backup wouldn't that result in the whole encrypted archive (potentially very large) being sent to the cloud again.

Really interested in your thoughts because this does seem like a really good option if it works as expected.

Thanks!

[foxmulder881]

Originally Posted by HyRax1

Yes, but can your local syncing software also keep track of your deleted files and keep multiple versions of modified files too? Sometimes a 1:1 backup is not always the best solution (but better than nothing of course).

Although 1:1 backup is not for everyone, it is exactly what I want and have. And why the bloody hell would I want record of deleted files? If I delete it, I clearly don't want it.

Originally Posted by eixt

What are you using for local syncing?

SyncBack. Works great!

[HyRax1]

Originally Posted by foxmulder881

And why the bloody hell would I want record of deleted files? If I delete it, I clearly don't want it.

You'd want it if you accidentally deleted an important file you didn't intend to delete, was unable to recover it locally for whatever reason, and had no other backups of it.

[foxmulder881]

Originally Posted by HyRax1

You'd want it if you accidentally deleted an important file you didn't intend to delete, was unable to recover it locally for whatever reason, and had no other backups of it.

Yes but I have 1:1 local backup, so I'd never have that problem. And most of the time my backup drive is not even plugged in.

[HyRax1]

Originally Posted by foxmulder881

Yes but I have 1:1 local backup, so I'd never have that problem. And most of the time my backup drive is not even plugged in.

And what if you discover that you (or someone else) inadvertently deleted that important file after you had done several other backup syncs since, thus deleting the file both locally and off your 1:1 backup? It'd still be there in the cloud, waiting for you.

What if you discovered another important file had become corrupt but was also corrupt in your backup because of the 1:1 mirroring? With versioning, you could roll back until you found the uncorrupted version.

[elvis]

Rsync Palace:
http://rsyncpalace.com/

A nice middle ground between things like CrashPlan, and the convenience of using a simple rsync-based backup scheme.

[foxmulder881]

Originally Posted by HyRax1

And what if you discover that you (or someone else) inadvertently deleted that important file after you had done several other backup syncs since, thus deleting the file both locally and off your 1:1 backup? It'd still be there in the cloud, waiting for you.

What if you discovered another important file had become corrupt but was also corrupt in your backup because of the 1:1 mirroring? With versioning, you could roll back until you found the uncorrupted version.

I know exactly what you're saying, but those situations just don't happen to me and don't effect me. I'm not saying that it's a service that doesn't allow recognition for what it provides.

I do use online based storage from several providers, Dropbox, Google Drive, ADrive and SpiderOak are the ones I use. And I use them all for different stuff. And I'm happy with what I use them for. But for when it comes to actual backup, I like to handle it all locally as I know what's going on with it at any given time. And then you also get the factor of bandwidth and amounts of data us geeks have. I have so much data between dekstops, laptops and smartphones storage, I no longer even take note of how much the exact numbers are. The world we live in!